The trend toward a quantitative, task based, understanding of medical images leads to the simple goal of answering “how many bits of information would one expect a medical image to contain about disease status?” Knowing the answer to this question could impact a clinician's decision of whether or not to order an imaging study, particularly in the case where it involves ionizing radiation. This quantity can be studied in terms of mutual information between disease status and anatomical form, and is the problem being tackled by Johns Hopkins Kavli NDI researchers, Daniel Tward and Michael Miller.

Multiple populations of wake-promoting neurons have been characterized in mammals, but few sleep-promoting neurons have been identified. Johns Hopkins Kavli NDI researchers Seth Blackshaw and colleagues have identified specific neurons that regulate sleep by inhibiting the activity of wake-promoting cells.

Kavli NDI associate Jeremy Nathans, with colleagues Chris Cho and Phillip Smallwood, address a series of open questions related to the regulation of mammalian CNS angiogenesis and blood-brain barrier maintenance. In their recent report in Neuron, they identify two proteins, Gpr124 and Reck, as essential cofactors for Wnt signaling that mediates vascularization of the mammalian brain and spinal cord.